few months old, and we were with my grandma, and she was helping me take care of her one day, and my baby brother was about four or five, and the living room was just full of toys. every room had some toy in it, and my grandmother she was carrying my daughter lily anna and we were coming into the room at the same time and as she came through the door she tripped over a toy and i was so scared because my daughter was only a few months old but boy did she know how to fall. she just rolld and my daughter -- she was still fully intact. she didn't hit the

ground. she wasn't even crying. i was so amazed by the way she was able to roll and fall, and so as an adult thinking back on a lot of my memories and remembering like the different lessons that people have brought to me. i remember my grandmother -- she knew how to fall but she knew how to fall, and so when i come to those points in my life where i feel like i'm falling i just know that we know how to do that. we know how to roll and we know how to roll and when we work hard we know how to work hard and do it with some style, so i am really fortunate to have just a great family and i am really honored. thank you. [applause]

>> is this somebody's purse up here? i know it's not mine. i went through it. there is no money in it now. it's nice when they leave gifts up here for me. with great pleasure i would like to introduce michael dur ran. michael dur ran come on up, a good friend, colleague. [applause]

>> good evening. i would like to thank everybody for being here today. i can't hear myself. my name is michael dur an and the counseling director at the health center in san jose california. i am here to speak on behalf of gwen spriar and the american indian alliance. it was created in the 90's to provide voice to the community in santa clara valley and started by laverne robert and provides two annual powwows and numerous fundraisers. gwen has been part of the alliance for about 15 years now. gwen is a elder and retired from the american indian district titles four, seven and nine of the

indian education act. she has moved beyond the limits of her duties for the families in her district. she spends time volunteers for all community functions that the alliance puts on. the families that she serves remember her fondly and all that she did for them. she offered her talents to powwows, food booths, graduations and dinners and let's watch a video on gwen stirrer. >> i am [inaudible] known as the keepers of the western door. they're on the western side of new york and they're the biggest of the tribes. i'm the one -- i'm the one that creeks that runs through our reservation now. indian community -- there was nothing in the beginning.

for 20 years that i work in the school district helping the children understand that their heritage was important, and important to be proud of being indian, and so that gave them reasons to study harder and to be a better student and stay in school. where you come from is important and what your background is and your family, so we have to have indian education. i don't think i'm a hero. i just had a job to do, and did it with the children at the school district, but i also like to include the whole community. that's why we put on the powwows and have different

events where everyone could attend. be proud that you're indian. >> so we would like to present gwen with this local hero's award from kqmd. thank you very much for what you have done for the community, for yourself and the community and all the relations and gwen is going to be saying a few words. we're going to present her with this bag here and thank you. >> why thank you michael. it's very nice to hear the good words about me, and my son even has flowers i see. thank you very much tom. i have three sons. tom and middle son and he has a son also named tom but he is here today from palm springs. you live in palm springs tom? >> all over. >> all over. and thank you and i would like to thank my other

friends. i saw so many of them here tonight and it's really nice that you came for our -- not just my friends but the friends of anacita and the others. thank you for coming. i also really think that we should thank kqmd. who else shows indian movies and honors indian people like tonight? this is a great, great honor to be here in city hall of san francisco. the person that nominated me for this award is laverne roberts. maybe some of you knew her as laverne morrisy. she went home to her reservation. she is piute and went to her home. where is her home? >> [inaudible]

>> in earring ton nevada. we went there once and she has a beautiful house and live there is and now she is even running for the council of her tribe. laverne was going to surprise me and be here this evening, but she had an outbreak of one of her illnesses. her foot started to bleed and now she has to be on crutches for a while, so she had to turn in her plane ticket and her taxi fare, but otherwise she would have been here tonight and many of us know laverne and we would like to say a prayer that she gets better soon and can come and see us. this is for laverne. yes. please

let's clap our hands for laverne. [applause] >> thank you. laverne roberts was honored here in this space two years ago. thank you laverne. and i think i can say a lot more about being indian and how much i am proud to be indian. i did work in the school district for more than 20 years, and the people that i work with they still call me up and tell me their troubles, and ask for help sometimes, but thank you very much for all of you to come tonight. [applause] >> all right. thank you gwen

and anaciata as well. i saw your family over there and got a bunch of hugs. all right. is shirley here yet? is shirley cavara here yet? good to see you shirley. calling to the stage at this time amanda bloom. [applause] >> it's a great honor for me to introduce shirley. for any of you that know shirley. whatever shirley wants she gets so she said i had to introduce her and here i am. sheerly is amazing

woman and was at alcatraz and taught children and supported me as a single mother, took care of my child there and i think she's one of the amazing woman in the community and this is a long over due award for her and congratulations shirley. [applause] so now we're going to -- now we're going to have a video. >> my name is shirley cavara and work for oakland school district and early education and people come from san joaquin valley and my family is located in the area. the best thing about working here is meeting all the families, and connecting with the kids, and when it

finally clicks to them "oh that's what that means". even if it's small steps with some kids it's a great feeling that you have made an accomplishment in their lives that they will remember, so here it started down at ice age and moved to second avenue because it got too big want there was a preschool there and out grew that area and we had three choice in oakland to have the child care center at and the parents chose this one and up in the hills and don't feel like you're in oakland and conducive to our setting and lifestyle as indian people, and a lot of our kids that graduated here are doing community work. they're out there working with their people so we have made a strong impact with kids and you don't think about it. you just

do what you do and what comes natural in working with kids and it's the only -- within the state of california the only urban american indian child development center. that couldn't have happened unless it involved the community and the staff and people that trurl cared to keep it going. >> one of the things i forgot to say there was a time when it was in danger of being closed and shirley lead the efforts to keep it open. [applause] >> oh wow thank you guys for this honor. we have been there for a long time and we were in the process of losing it for a while but the community came together and it's not about me or karen or the people being honored and it takes a community

and that phrase "it takes a village to raise a child". it truly does and takes everyone of us and people in the community, our education community, our native american health center community, our crc community because once they leave us then somebody else has to pick up where we left off and carry that ball to educate the students and i see the students and it's good to see you guys and i thank you for being here and honor all of us, and keep your prayers open for hinttelethat it will always be there. if i can hang in for a couple more years i hope to retire. knock on wood. thanks for being here and each of you

drive safely and thank you for your prayers and blessings and those that come before us and those coming into the world. hi pop. [applause] >> shirley, shirley. >> all my x's kids of taught by shirley. i'm kidding. and again with great pleasure welcome janet king to the stage. [applause] >> hello everybody. i have the

great honor and privilege to introduce and to introduce karen harrison who is also receiving this award tonight. karen harrison is a registered nurse and clinic manager at the native american indian center in oakland and a member from a tribe here in california. she started out as a medical assistant in 1985 with the native american health center and went on to get her registered nurse degree so she's been with the health center for 27 years and 21 of those years she has been a registered nurse. [applause] karen has greatly contributed to the native american health

center and sharing her knowledge and wisdom with the whole agency and this goes out to the community as well and serves as a chair on the advisory community and board member of the friendship house and coached american indian children in the tribal athletics program and known as the coworkers as the patient whisperer and when there is a patient that is angry or agitated she is always successful in calming them down. she is a mother and her with her family tonight. can all her kids wave? and she is here with her sister and lots of friends and now we're going to see a video about her. >> i am karen harrison. i'm the nurse manager at the native american health center and got into it as being a caretaker

and grew up in a lot of pain and suffering because of who we are, where we come from, and so early on there needed to be caretaker caretakers. i think what we always needed in the communicate. >> >> and work is -- >> and community and work and mentoring somebody behind us and finding the young people that will be the up and coming leaders. it's hard to think of myself as a leader in the community because i am taught not to think about myself or brag about myself except in prayer. we pray for ourselves to first so we can be stronger to pull other people up, but to pay attention to myself goes against the way i was taught growing up. we don't brag about it. we just do it and that's our job and just do it. it's

important to always do community work because we are teaching somebody without knowing and somebody is watching us and it keeps our community strong. [applause] >> thank you. thank you everybody. i made myself cry again just watching it, but thank kqmd and as i said in the video here it was really hard for me to accept this because i don't think myself and martha did convincing and remember there is always somebody watching. somebody young or old is watching and we have to carry ourselves in a good way because maybe somebody wants to be like us one day. i thank my co-workers for coming. i gave

this little speech a couple weeks ago and broke down crying and i said two weeks ago those are my heroes. anybody that can choose to work in health care servicing the people you guys are my heroes. shirley is my hero. she is servicing people and i think that is my message. anybody that chooses to serve people you're awesome. you're all my heroes, and i think i just want to leave a quick little word of what a uncle told me this year is "what -- actually "what is hard is told us to go out everyday and live a beautiful life" and i think if we can do that it's a good world. it's a good thing. so thank you and i thank my family

for dancing. that was awesome for me to see. thank you for coming out. thank you lisa for driving all that way and my co-workers -- like i said you're all my heroes and we came straight from work. [applause] >> one of the first times that the harrison family made it to city hall and they're not paying a parking ticket. once again congratulations to anacita, gwen, shirley, and karen. can we have all the other

recipients of this pres tangibleious award -- please stand if you're able. okay. don't be shy gosh. again how about a big round of applause for all these standing. [applause] one of the greatest awards is to be honored by your community, by your own people, so again my hats off to all the recipients for this year. we give thanks to the native american aids proyektd, the mayor's office office of services, each bay health center, aqmd, the health center of santa clara valley and once again we applaud you and

we thank you. [applause] going back over to our singers. smoky bay, two starts and a song -- one of your favorites and napsters two starts as well. dancers, do you want to come in? all right. here we go. make them dance. (drums).

>> good singing. good dancing. here we go. rocking san francisco city hall. good dancing. all right. (drums).

napsters take it away. two starts. all right. we would

like to get the honorees. if the honorees could come up here by the first step. napsters if you could take care of this honoring song. here we go. (drums and chanting).

all right. how about a big round of applause for all our honorees. thank you dancers. thank you singers. that concludes our program.

>> hey, guys, nona here with the weekly buzz. it's mid february and there's tons of affordable events happening throughout the city. grab your valentine and get ready to have some fun. here are my topics for the week. this thursday, february 14th, bring your special someone or just your admiration for romantic music for a night of flamingo music. and other renowned musicians combine rowman i can music of i go far with footwork and song. dinner will be served throughout the performance so make your reservation early to ensure great view. okay. maybe valentine's day isn't your thing. well, have no fear because sf is here and there's over 300 events celebrating san francisco's craft fair legacies throughout the city. one event that i'm really looking forward to is the brewery blow out at speaks easy lauger. friday, february 15, enjoy 15 rare and limited beer on tap to live music and